Eugenius of Palermo (also Eugene) ( la, Eugenius Siculus, el, Εὐγενἠς Εὐγένιος ὁ τῆς Πανόρμου, it, Eugenio da Palermo; 1130 – 1202) was an ''
amiratus'' (admiral) of the
Kingdom of Sicily in the late twelfth century.
He was of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
origin, but born in
Palermo, and had an educated background, for he was "most learned in Greek and Arabic, and not unskilled in Latin."
[Houben, 99, quoting an anonymous Latin translator of Ptolemy's '' Almagest''.] By the time of his admiralcy, the educated, multilingual Greek or Arab administrator was becoming rare in Sicily.
Eugenius' family had been important in the
Hauteville administration for generations before him. He was a son of
Admiral John and grandson of another
Admiral Eugenius. He served under
William II before being raised to the rank of admiral in 1190.
[Norwich, 406.] His first duties were as an officer of the ''
diwan'' (Latinised ''duana'' or ''dohana''). He bore the title ''magister duane baronum'' in September 1174, when he was sent by the king to
Salerno to check the accounts of the
bailiffs and to authorise the sale of property on behalf of the ''
stratigotus,'' so he could pay off a loan. Though his official duties as ''magister'' are unknown, he was also in charge of publishing and disseminating a ''signaculum'' of William's whereby all tolls at bridges, roadways, and riverways in the
royal demesne were lifted (April 1187).
[Matthew, 226.] Eugenius determined the boundaries of the lands of the church of
Santa Sofia of
Benevento in 1175 and he arbitrated a boundary dispute between
Ravello and
Amalfi
Amalfi (, , ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto (1,315 metres, 4,314 feet), surrounded by dramati ...
at
Nocera in 1178 and at
Minori later that year in September. There he was styled ''magister regie dohane baronum et de secretis''.
At this time, he appears to have worked under
Walter de Moac.
He loyally served
Tancred before transitioning to a role in the
Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...
government of
Constance and the
Emperor Henry VI
Henry VI (German: ''Heinrich VI.''; November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sic ...
. He was falsely accused of conspiring against Henry and was briefly held captive in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Eugenius was an accomplished translator and poet and has even been suggested as the person behind the
pen name "
Hugo Falcandus Hugo Falcandus was a historian who chronicled the reign of William I of Sicily and the minority of his son William II in a highly critical work entitled ''The History of the Tyrants of Sicily'' (or ''Liber de Regno Sicilie''). The Latin of the work ...
", a chronicler who wrote a record of events at Palermo from 1154 to 1169.
Eugenius was certainly well-placed for such a chronicle. Around 1154, he made a translation from Arabic to Latin of
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
's ''
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...
'', which survives in twenty manuscripts. He also translated the
Sibylline ''Erythraeon'' from Greek into Latin, but the only manuscripts of this which survive are thirteenth-century copies based on the prophecies of
Joachim of Fiore
Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore (c. 1135 – 30 March 1202), was an Italian Christian theologian, Catholic abbot, and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore. According to th ...
. He wrote Greek poetry, of which twenty-four verses survive in a fourteenth-century manuscript. They were of mediocre quality and written in the style then prevalent at
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
.
[Matthew, 119.] The poems give insight to his life and times: he was an intimate of
King William I and an associate of the Greek religious communities in
Brindisi and
Messina. He wrote one poem lamenting his imprisonment (in Germany), blaming it on the evil state of the world, but taking a philosophical approach to his troubles.
See also
*
Latin translations of the 12th century
Latin translations of the 12th century were spurred by a major search by European scholars for new learning unavailable in western Europe at the time; their search led them to areas of southern Europe, particularly in central Spain and Sicily, w ...
Sources
*
Norwich, John Julius. ''The Kingdom in the Sun 1130–1194''. London: Longmans, 1970.
*Matthew, Donald. ''The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks)''. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
*Houben, Hubert (translated by Graham A. Loud and Diane Milburn). ''Roger II of Sicily: Ruler between East and West''. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
*
von Falkenhausen, Vera. "Eugenio da Palermo." ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani''. 1993.
*
Jamison, Evelyn. ''Admiral Eugenius of Sicily, his Life and Work and the Authorship of the Epistola ad Petrum and the Historia Hugonis Falcandi Siculi''. London: 1957.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eugenius
1130s births
1202 deaths
Military personnel from Palermo
Italian admirals
Greek–Latin translators
Arabic–Latin translators
Kingdom of Sicily people
Year of birth uncertain
Medieval admirals
12th-century translators
12th-century Italian poets
12th-century Latin writers